NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he has "talked to the commissioners in the other leagues" about legalizing sports betting, according to David Perdum of ESPN.com. Silver: "I leave it to them to make any public statements they want to make on it. I will say that certainly all of them are interested in having a better understanding of the issue, and I know have assigned people in their organizations to study intensively the issue as well." Sources said that there also have been "other private meetings between council for the leagues to discuss the pros and cons of legalization." Silver is the only active commissioner to "come out publicly in support of legalization." Sources said that the NHL is "more open to legalization" than previous comments by Commissioner Gary Bettman indicate. Purdum noted the NHL "did not respond to multiple requests for comment." Silver "may not have the full support of the other leagues." But he said that NBA owners "approve of his approach." Silver said that the NBA "is not currently taking an active legislative approach, but others are." U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) last week said that he "believes it's time for Congress to hold hearings to discuss legalizing sports betting" (ESPN.com, 2/3).
EVE OF ADAM'S OP-ED:
Purdum in the current issue of ESPN THE MAGAZINE writes the evolution of Silver as a "gambling realist in many ways began" in '06, after he "took over" the league's int'l operations as deputy commissioner. He spent time overseas "growing the NBA's brand, giving him a vantage point to see how legalized gambling worked in other countries." Silver: "As we began to stage exhibition games in Europe and China and jurisdictions where sports betting was legal, it caused me to focus more on this than I had historically. Then we began getting approached by sports-betting companies outside of the United States, where it's legal, to do business with them. As we became more of a global company, I began to think about what our policy should be here." Silver has "remained steadfast that legal sports gambling should be addressed first on the federal, not state, level." But the timing of an
op-ed that he wrote in the N.Y. Times "allowed him to address another seeming hypocrisy: Just one day prior to its publication, the league announced a deal" with FanDuel that "included an equity stake in the company." He said, "The league and many of our teams are actively engaged in the so-called daily fantasy business. And while I wouldn't categorize that as sports betting, on the continuum of no betting at all and legalized betting, it's certainly on the spectrum." Purdum: "Perhaps the best Silver can hope for from other commissioners is a new view of sports betting as a possible 'frenemy'" (
ESPN THE MAGAZINE, 2/16 issue).
